The Need to Create a New Political Culture and Political Unity Amongst the American People

September 16, 2014

The thoroughly anti-social agenda being imposed on our country by the monopoly capitalist class confronts the working class and people with a serious challenge. At stake are not only such vital, immediate issues as whether social programs and social services will continue to be cut back and privatized, whether the capitalists will succeed in imposing new and more intense forms of exploitation on the working class, and so forth. At stake is the future of our country and the kind of society Americans will experience from this point on. At stake is whether monopoly capital will throw society backwards hundreds of years or whether the working class and people will again put our country on the path of renewal and progress. At stake is what is going to happen to our humanity.

Neither the Workers Party nor anyone else has to invent opposition to the anti-social agenda of monopoly capital. The issue is to give a conscious political expression to the opposition that already exists on a widescale and especially to bring to the fore a positive, pro-social agenda which can put the initiative into the hands of the people and open the path for the renewal and progress of our country.

Such a pro-social agenda cannot have any sectarian aims but must unite the overwhelming majority of the people, giving expression to their common demands and agenda. The very objective conditions facing the people as well as the demands of social development provide the basis for the unity of the American people. But as long as our country remains split into antagonistic social classes, and monopoly capital continues to lord it over the people, the unity of the American people can only develop through political struggle against the capitalists and their state power. It is only through this political struggle that the people can realize their profound aspirations to bring into being that new society which creates the conditions for the blossoming of both the collective and individual human personality.

Thus hard work and a real fight is needed to not only work out such a pro-social agenda but especially to make it the agenda of the country. For decades, monopoly capital has worked to marginalize the working class and exclude any pro-social agenda from the political life of the country. In fact, time and again, the workers and people have seen their unity undermined and their struggles liquidated by various political forces which have subordinated the aims and agenda of the people to the aims of the capitalists and betrayed the popular movement. Changing this situation requires consistent, repeated and principled actions to bring the pro-social agenda to center stage, to develop new space in which workers and people can mobilize and empower themselves and step by step change the balance of forces in favor of the people. Progressive activists must really grasp the tremendous responsibilities and possibilities which exist today to create a new political unity. Repeated efforts must be made to break the marginalization of the working class and progressive politics and bring the agenda for genuine social change to the forefront.

The Need for Discussion

Part and parcel of developing this new political unity, of ending the marginalization of the working class, is creating a new political culture – creating the conditions and forms of organization through which people can discuss the situation, begin from their own aims and agenda and work out the strategy and tactics for advancing their struggle.

A key part of the political marginalization of the people is the political obscurantism of the bourgeoisie. The people and their interests and struggles are completely excluded from the political discussion. A pre-set agenda, based solely on the needs of big capital, is rammed down the peoples throat, a continuous campaign of disinformation is waged not only to create hysteria and impose the capitalist agenda but also to defame and exclude the voice of progressive public opinion.

Every day people in all walks of life criticize and denounce the depraved ideology and political culture of the bourgeoisie. But still, too often, progressive-minded people do not take seriously enough the extent of the terrorism of bourgeois ideology. That is they do not fully see the need to consciously and systematically go against it, in order to strengthen the progressive thinking and activity of the people.

Of course, the people discuss their own aims and agenda everyday. But the deafening propaganda of the bourgeoisie seeks to drown out the people's voice, so that we often do not even hear ourselves. Simply developing discussion which respects people's ideas and enables them to express their aspirations is an important contribution to creating a new political culture which empowers people to think and act. In the course of such discussion, it is also necessary to provide information, look into the root causes of social problems without preconceived notions and put forward solutions which transcend the limits of bourgeois politics. The issue in the discussion is neither to argue for sectarian views nor to be afraid to disagree with various ideas; the issue is to create an atmosphere and forms of organization in which people can sort out the way to strengthen their political unity and bring their political agenda to the forefront of the life of the country.